77 interesting case study

Alex and lyn…. Your postings provide almost as much interest as a tv documentary to me and I am hoping everything works out well for you… I think your cautious approach has nothing wrong in it And as you say suits you and also gives others an idea who are worried and in certain cases rightfully so about investing life savings…etc in a move to italy….. the advise given helps others make a choice from checking everything to accepting that there are certain risks that you might be willing to take in the process and trust…..

There are also elements of costs involved ….. some advise given regards full surveys and structural engineers…uk lawyers and so on and so forth ….. it would be interesting to hear if you follow all or part of this advise at the costs of doing it all this way… or maybe those that recommend this way could advise on average charges on say average properties…if any exist here that is…. So that people choosing this route or even part of this route could have a better idea say of what percentage they would need to add to the house price to do all this checking…..

In general and people have posted this in other msgs you allow from 10- 20 % on all the buying aspects depending on being resident or non resident…. If say you follow the cautious approach as alex and lyn like to call it …. With full structural surveys …. Engineer reports and uk lawyers does this bring you up to 50% extra… or less….or more… will a 100,000 euro village house looking the same as the ones next door with people living in them for 100s of years benefit from an investment of 50,000 euro to let you know it is all safe and sound…. Could you afford it….

I can tell you now if you buy an old house in italy you will have a certain element of damp problems…the same would follow if you buy an older property in england before the advent of damp courses. In general this is alleviated by most properties having the living areas starting on the first floor…. The ground floor and the walls at that level being the damper area…. To do anything to stop this damp will in general be very costly and involve large amounts of structural work on the foundations....

to find out this via the survey etc… already having added whatever the percentage to the cost of the house....keeping it rounded... at say my 50% …to put right will cost you say another 25 % so now your house is costing you 175,000 euro.....

and then the roof.... unless your lucky and have a new roof with all the new structural safety elements that are now required will also need to be redone under the survey….another 25 % … we have arrived at 200,000 euro…

The figures are maybe not real … I would be interested to hear the real ones … I am not advocating anyone to buy a house that they are not sure of as a structural entity… I am just trying to see if there is anyone that can advise on what it will all cost…. And then I think you have to balance it out with good common sense approach regarding both the safety of the building and an eye to your budget…

So alex and lyn continue your reporting it is an interesting experience …and there are many lessons to be learnt… and if anyone can provide a historic and cost case study of doing it this way it would be very interesting to hear… being informed via this forum by those that know will make choices easier for those who are just starting out to budget realistically.... a house price is just the beginning... attractive and reasonable... but only the beginning of your base costs... in general and well documented we all know about adding the initial max 20 % ....whats next